Apex Predator
by UNKOWN SOURCE
Summary: "We are the apex predators. We are the top of the food chain. We hunt. We kill. We consume. We become. Do you understand, Dan Gotanda?"- A Prototype /Infinite Stratos Crossover. Features Dan Gotanda, who apparently does not even have a character button.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Infinite Stratos or [Prototype].

This Fanfic DOES NOT disregard [Prototype 2]. It gives an explanation of how Alex survived and perhaps recharacterizes him in such a way that makes him closer to his [Prototype] persona, but the Second Outbreak still happened in this fanfic.

Note: This Fanfic assumes the first outbreak happened in 2009 (since that is when [Prototype] was released) and the second happened in 2010 (since the second is supposed to occur 14 months after the first).

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* * *

Prologue: Awake

"He is awake!"

A flurry of lights and sounds assault the eyes of one Dan Gotanda. Naturally, he is confused… more so than usual.

"What happened…?" He thought. Taking a good look at his surroundings, he found himself surrounded by people in lab coats, and the familiar faces of his family members.

The people in lab coats were astonished, while his family members were in tears.

This only served to confuse him even more. Did he just get resurrected or something?

"What happened…?" He asked himself again, trying to will himself to remember just what caused everyone to look at him in such a strange way.

Trying to get up, he finds himself gently pushed back down by a corpselike person. He's also wearing a lab coat. Dan did not notice this person's presence before. He must have arrived recently.

"Don't get up, you need to rest," said the corpselike person.

Dan was about to ask the person what happened to him before the person continued.

"You're in the hospital, kid. You got multiple stabs at your abdomen and one stab at your lungs defending your sister here from would-be rapists. If it worries you, she escaped safely," the corpselike man explained, as if reading his mind. "She called the police after she escaped, and they found you bloodied and dying," he continued.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Dan asked the corpselike man in the most polite manner he can.

"This is the person who saved your life!" said one very enthusiastic man. Dan immediately deduced that this man is a doctor, since he's in a hospital.

"His name is Doctor Mercer! God, he's a miracle worker!" the man continued. Dan now realizes that this enthusiastic man is no other than the person who yelled "He is awake!" the first time he opened his eyes.

Dan isn't a genius, but even HE knows that you simply CAN'T survive disembowelment AND a puncture in the lung, ESPECIALLY if not treated immediately. Before he had a chance to ask, however, a blob with red hair tackle-hugged him.

"I'm sorry Onee-san! I won't be mean to you again!" cries the red blob. Dan finally notices that the red blob is none other than his sister, Ran Gotanda. She is in tears. Her, and all of his family members; His mom, his dad, hell, even his grandpa.

"Interesting," Dan mused, "I never remembered Ran crying for me even once."

Dan turns his head towards that of Doctor Mercer's. He now notices aside from his corpselike complexion, he has brown hair and blue eyes.

"Thank you, Doctor Mercer," said Dan gratefully. He did save his life, after all.

"No problem kid," replies the Doctor.

A sudden urge assaulted Dan. The urge to move… to run… to scale walls… to do things he knows he can't do even when he's healthy. And yet the urge seems instinctual…

"When can I be discharged, doc?" asks Dan. The urge is overpowering him. He needs to get out of this confined space, fast.

"In a week or so," replies Doctor Mercer. Dan immediately cringes at the thought of being trapped in a small room for an entire week.

"Not yet," soothes a voice in his head, calming his desires to get out of the place, "Soon, perhaps tonight, but not yet."

Dan notes that the voice seems eerily reminiscent to that of Doctor Mercer's.

The Doctor nods to him, as if confirming that the voice indeed is his.

* * *

"Why?" asked a hooded figure bound on a wheelchair in a confused tone.

"A lot of reasons," replied Alex Mercer.

"You used Blacklight to save him. Why did you try so hard? I know his genes are compatible, but his background is simply unsuitable for any of your goals," pressed the hooded figure.

"I know, I know," replied Alex Mercer, voice sounding tired. Of course, Mercer is Blacklight incarnate, he does not tire at all, but even then human mannerisms seem to be maintained entirely out of habit for him.

"Then why?" asked the hooded figure.

"He has a sister," Alex murmured, answering the question as if it pained him.

"Ah," said the hooded figure, as if that explained everything to him, "To be honest with you, I thought that you wouldn't save him because he has a sister, not the other way around. After all, Dana did betray you…"

"That was a long time ago," Alex replied, "Plus, she had a very good reason for doing so. Not to mention I was a jackass at the time."

"Ah yes, the second outbreak," said the hooded figure, "I still don't understand why you sent a biomass replica to fight him and lose, instead of just killing him with your capabilities."

Alex sighed.

"I wanted to create a perfect world for Dana. I did it in order to protect her, to make her happy. When I found out she betrayed me… well… I simply lost the drive to do it, I guess. Besides, I won't win if I face Heller at that time."

"And why is that?"

"Heller had a family to protect and revenge to exact. I had… nothing. I disappointed the only family I cared about and I have no goals that I had a personal stake in. I knew he was going to win… because I won against Greene and Blackwatch before using the exact same formula; Dana to protect and Gentek to exact my revenge on. That is why I sent a biomass replica with memories of the vault's location. Because I knew I was going to lose."

"Did you regret that?"

"Trying to conquer the world? Yeah I did."

"No. Did you regret sending that Biomass replica instead of simply throwing the fight? Did you regret deciding to live with the burden of your sins instead of dying for them?"

Alex paused, thinking of a suitable reply.

"No, I did not," Alex finally replied, "I never liked taking the easy way out anyhow."

A chuckle from the hooded figure is heard.

"So, what's next? What are you going to do with the boy?"

"Well… I'll train him, I guess. I don't think he'll abuse those powers. He has a family after all. If he does well enough, maybe I'll recruit him to Blacklight, if he so desires."

Another pause, this time from the hooded figure, occurred. The hooded figure then, the first time in this conversation, turned his head from staring of the space beyond the railing of the rooftops and onto the blue eyes of Alex Mercer.

"You're actually giving him a choice in the matter?" asked the hooded figure incredulously, staring at Alex as if he just consumed someone.

"Aren't I allowed?"

* * *

It is 8'o clock at night.

His family left already, after accompanying him for ten hours straight. They had a business to run after all. Dan understood that.

Besides, he needs their absence right now. He needs to escape this hospital and take a jog or something. "I'm sure I can go out, take a jog, and return without getting caught," he thought.

"Not yet," said the voice of Doctor Mercer, "Too many people still walking around, you'll get caught."

So he waited.

…

Three hours later, Doctor Mercer enters his darkened room. The lights weren't on.

"We're going out. You need a change of clothes, preferably those for jogging," Doctor Mercer said.

"So I wasn't hallucinating about the voice… he can actually read my mind," Dan thought. He really would have been surprised, if not the fact that this world has physics defying exoskeletons powered by infinite power sources. Mind reading is tame compared to that.

"Change your clothes. We can talk later," grunted Doctor Mercer, as if his thoughts annoyed him.

"But I don't have a change of clothes," thought Dan. Before he could voice his thoughts, however, Mercer interrupted him.

"Imagine yourself wearing the clothes you had when you got stabbed," instructed Doctor Mercer. Dan did what he was told, shutting his eyes to focus. Something is telling him that the Doctor isn't crazy and that something is bound to happen.

When he opened his eyes, he's wearing his clothes when he got stabbed under the hospital gown.

"What the fuck?" he thought.

"Dismiss those clothes. This time, do not close your eyes."

Dan did what he was told. He was, quite frankly, freaked out when his clothes suddenly became black-red worm like structures and entered his skin.

"What the fuck!" he said, this time not bothering to hide his thoughts. If his suspicions are correct, the Doctor could read his mind anyway. Thus, it simply does not make any sense to hide his astonishment.

"It does. What if someone heard that?" Mercer suddenly opined, confirming once and for all that he can indeed read Dan's mind.

"Oh…" replied Dan, his mind still trying to comprehend what the hell is going on.

"Curious? Then summon your clothes, take of that hospital gown and meet me at the rooftops. I'll explain there."

When Alex Mercer left for the rooftops, Dan was only a few steps behind him, already in his clothes and out of his hospital gown.

"So, Dan Gotanda, correct? My name is Alex Mercer. Call me Alex, I hate formalities," Alex started when they arrived at the rooftops.

"Alright, Alex-san" replies Dan.

"I'll explain what's going on here. But first, let's take a jog."

Alex vaulted over the rooftop railing and fell to the ground with a thud. Dan simply stood there, staring and wondering how in the world he survived a five story fall.

"Come on, jump. Surviving falls are just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do now."

Dan hesitated, but he believes he could trust Alex. He jumped while shutting his eyes.

Another thump.

Dan opened his eyes. He flexed his fingers and stretched his legs, checking what bone he broke. He found out he broke none, although instinctually he knew he wouldn't be hurt.

Alex motioned Dan to follow him. Alex broke into a run, faster than what normal humans could possibly run at, and Dan followed. He was mildly surprised that he could keep up, but seeing that he survived a five story drop, he was kind of expecting it.

What he did not expect was, however, when Alex ran up an eight story building. Dan's rational mind tried to stop himself from crashing to the wall, but his instincts screamed to keep on running, as if he's made for this. Dan obeyed his instincts.

He was freaked out when he ran up the building vertically, just like what Alex Mercer had done.

Scaling the building, he reached the rooftop. Dan expected Alex to stop and give him an explanation at this point. Alex however, simply continued sprinting and jumped to another building.

"What the fuck?" grunted Dan. He can't seriously be expecting him to be able to leap that far a distance, right?

"No harm done with trying," thought Dan. He is, after all, capable of surviving lethal falls without a single scratch. There is not point for him to worry about plummeting down to the Earth. He is worried, however, on whether or not he could keep up with Alex.

Gathering all his strength at his legs, Dan jumped.

The wind rushing past his ears was enough indication that he really did jump freakishly high.

He did not quite jump as high or as long as Alex, though. Alex cleared the jump and landed on the target 16 story building. Dan smashed onto the 12th floor. "Thank God I crashed onto a wall and not a window," he thought. Dan immediately shifted his position before gravity does its work, and ran up the rest of the building.

After leaping building to building, they finally arrived at the outskirts of a forest. Alex sprinted into it, Dan following him closely behind.

After they were deep enough into the forest, Alex stopped. Turning around and facing Dan, Alex grinned.

"Welcome, Kid, to the top of the food chain."

* * *

Notes:

Blacklight is an organization Alex made for purposes unknown. It's named after (obviously) the Blacklight virus.

Alex has his own hivemind now, used to manage the local and worldwide communication of his Prototype agents. It acts like an internet chat service, really, just using thoughts instead of typed words.

The wheelchair-bound hooded figure is an OC. He's not going to appear much in this story.

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	2. Chapter 1: First Blood

Disclaimer: I do not own Infinite Stratos or [Prototype].

Finally, an actual update! Sorry this chapter is really late!

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Chapter 1: First Blood

* * *

"Mercer-san, before I go, may I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead kid."

"It's been botherin me… am I really Dan Gotanda? Am I just a copy of him that believes himself to be him?"

Alex chuckled.

"To be honest, I though you would be too stupid to even think about the truth of your existence."

"Hey!"

"But, anyway… it's mostly a matter of choice."

Alex sighed.

"I am hereby crossing the boundaries of good science and moving towards the territory of metaphysics. Whatever I say after this may or may not be factual, and will be highly speculative. I am not responsible of anything I will say until I say so."

"Um… okay."

"Assuming you subscribe to the hard problem of consciousness, then consciousness could not possibly be a part of the biological functions of the brain. In other words, if the 'mind' or 'soul' is indeed separate from the brain, then your question is valid."

"I don't understand."

"Well, again, I'm just speculating, but if human consciousness is really just an algorithmical mix of memory and stimuli, then you would definitely be Dan Gotanda, since you possess his memories."

"That's not-"

"I know, kid. Scary, isn't it, that the assumption that you are Dan Gotanda _just because_ you possess his memories is somehow worse than if you _weren't_ Dan Gotanda? Anyway, I'm just messing with you here. But let's assume that human consciousness is more than just algorithms. Let's assume that human consciousness is somehow separate and unaffected by classical mechanics. Let's assume that the 'soul' indeed does exist."

"And this answers my question… how?"

"I'm getting to that. Well, if the soul really does exist, then could a _virus_ have a soul? Technically, you aren't even alive. And yet here you are, self-aware. You questioned the truth of your own self-awareness, and in the process confirmed that you indeed understand yourself as an individual separate from the environment and from other individuals. If souls do exist, then you have one. The question is then where did you get your soul from?"

"From… Dan Gotanda?"

"There is no other possibility. Of course, I haven't actually answered your question. The answer to whether or not you are Dan Gotanda lies in your decision."

"You lost me again."

"I decided _not_ to become Alex Mercer. The original Alex Mercer was a sociopath, a monster of a human being. I decided _not _to emulate his behavior, _not_ to mimic his actions and _not_ to act to his personality. I constructed my own personality out of my own decisions. You have that choice too. You can be someone other than Dan Gotanda. You can be different. On the other hand, you don't have to. You can be whoever you want."

"So I am Dan Gotanda if I want to be?"

"Correct. Well, at least to yourself you are. In reality, you have no say about the existence of Dan Gotanda. Others do. It will be your peers who will decide whether or not you are Dan Gotanda. You have no ability to decide for yourself. Your sister and your girlfriend will decide on whether or not you are worthy to be Dan Gotanda."

Dan sighed.

"I'm not gonna ask how you know about Utosho-san. I won't bother."

Alex laughed.

"Well, you better get going. That bank robbery isn't going to stop itself, after all."

Dan ran and scaled a nearby apartment, intent on completing his first assignment.

* * *

"_You are not my brother… You are not Alex Mercer."_

Alex sighed.

_Other people decide who you are. You have no say in it._

* * *

Dan perched over the rooftop across a bank. A bank that is, as of right now, being robbed. A robbery that he's supposed to stop, but honestly he doesn't know how to start.

Alex already provided him, through the use of biomass capsules, the claw and hammerfist power, as well as an upgrade in fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle capability (what does this actually mean Dan is not entirely sure. He did not pay much attention in biology class). That is probably irrelevant, given that he almost certainly could defeat all the robbers with his bare hands.

If the robbers were alone, this would have been easy. Unfortunately, the robbers have hostages. This greatly complicates the situation. Even more unfortunately, the police are surrounding the bank. He can't just go in and beat the robbers.

For one thing, Alex outlined a few objectives he had to fulfill. These objectives are: To minimize civilian casualties, to prevent the robbery, to consume one of the robbers to obtain information, to try not to accidentally kill any of the police and to minimize media exposure.

The robbers just happen to be in close proximity to civilians, the bank is surrounded in combat ranges (approximately 50m) by the police, and the robbers already have an escape route in the form of a getaway car. The only thing this situation lacks is reporters.

_Speak of the devil…_

A TV van parked itself behind the barricade of police cars.

_Alex probably knew that I won't be able to fulfill all of the objectives._

_Or, maybe he's expecting me to pull out some heroic shit and somehow successfully do this perfectly. _

_It won't be farfetched to think that he was the one who called the media van, too. _

Dan continued observing. _The best way I could do this is to let the robbers initially escape, stealthily follow them until they're out of sight, and then attack them and…_

_And what?_

_Defeat them non-lethally and hand them to the police? _

_But then I wouldn't get the information I need… _

_I could interrogate one of them instead of consuming them. _

_Yeah. That's probably the best course of action. _

Dan relaxed a bit.

At that point, everything went to hell.

One of the robbers opened the gym bag he was always carrying and took out a damn medium machinegun. The robber promptly set the machinegun up and fired on the nearest police car. One of the policemen did not take cover fast enough and a 7.62 NATO round hit his shoulder.

The police could not return fire for fear of hitting any of the hostages.

The machinegun fire subsided. One of the robbers took out a microphone and started shouting to the police.

"I will count to thirty! And by the end of it, I want all policemen to be no nearer than a hundred and fifty meters from where I stand! If that doesn't happen, I'll shoot one of the hostages!"

_What? _

The police started scrambling and rushing away from the bank. The one who got shot had one of his arm draped over his partner, and they rose out of cover to run away from the bank.

_No… _

The robber with the machinegun took aim at the two cops.

"As if I'll let you do that!" Dan roared.

It took him less than a second to clear the distance between the rooftop he perched on before and the machinegunner. It took him less than a tenth of a second to turn his arms to claws and decapitate the offending asshole. And it took him less than a hundredth of a second to lunge and plunge his claws through the robber with the microphone.

_I actually killed someone…_

The third and last robber simply stared at him. He finally shook himself out of the shock caused by Dan, and quickly raised his rifle.

A burst on rifle fire found Dan's back. Another found the back of his head. His head jerked forward in response, ever so slightly.

Dan turned around, ever so slowly and menacingly, to face the last robber. At that point, the robber drew his shotgun and fired at his face.

Half of Dan's face disappeared under the 12-gauge 00 buckshot.

An expression of relief streaked on the last robber's face.

This was quickly replaced by confusion because Dan isn't falling yet.

Dan's face promptly regenerated itself in less than a second.

The look of relief is now replaced by a look of horror.

Dan cracked his neck. It wasn't really necessary, but Dan could not help but do it. It would make the scene more awesome than it already is.

"Had your fill?" Dan asked, voice amused but laced with the intent to kill.

The answer never really came. Dan lunged at the last robber, put his arm through his heart and consumed him immediately.

* * *

"So, how did it feel?"

"I don't know."

"I was observing you. Both your actions and the surface of your thoughts. You did not originally want to kill them. Why?"

"I don't know, okay? It was all in the heat of action!"

"And your original plan, whatever it is, did not involve having to brutally kill the robbers?"

"Yes! It didn't, alright!"

"And did your original plan attempt to complete all of the objectives at once?"

"Yes! Of course it did!"

"Did you succeed in completing all of the objectives?"

"No, alright! I know I failed! I'm not stupid!"

"Good."

Dan took a moment to reply.

"What?" was Dan's well thought out retort.

"You have experienced firsthand the brutality of reality… that sparing your enemies is a very hard thing to do. Things won't work out like they do on Anime shows, where the villains become the protagonist's friends after being defeated by him. You have to be willing to kill. You have to be willing to be ruthless. And you have to be willing to cheat."

Alex paused.

"You also experienced firsthand the impossibility of completely succeeding, and how easy it is to completely fail. You learnt that if you do not prioritize your objectives and sacrifice some of them, you will end up not achieving any of your objectives. You sacrificed minimizing media exposure for the sake of completing your other objectives, and you let go of your self-thrust objective of not killing anyone for the sake of saving the innocent. In short, you have learnt to _prioritize,_ and you have learnt that the price of not prioritizing is _always_ failure."

Alex smiled.

"Congratulations on completing heroics crash course 101. Remember, being a classic hero is impossible! So don't even try."

Dan sighed.

"So, I'm supposed to do all that…" Dan started.

"You were supposed to learn. That is all," Alex replied.

"When I killed… I find myself not flinching away in disgust. Hell, I even felt somewhat excited before I killed the third and last robber…"

"And?"

"I can't believe it's so… easy to get used to killing."

"You had the safety of others in mind. That is way you could kill so easily. The only thing that would pump you with more adrenaline than the instinct of self preservation is the desire to protect others. It's understandable. I can get you one of my psychiatrist contacts, if you want."

"No thanks… I'll deal with this alone."

"Good. Now to the topic of the memories you obtained…"

"I know. The robbery itself is just a distraction. The real target is an I.S. Research facility located in this city. Now that the distraction failed, whoever these people are will probably delay their attack until tomorrow. They'll need to prepare for an actual full-scale assault, after all."

"This saves us some time. Now, get to bed… or run around, I don't really care. Tomorrow, I'll inform you of the location of the facility so that you can wait for the attackers there. Make sure you consume one of the attackers. We need information."

* * *

Extra:

Mercer's Notes:

January 18, 2009

On Blacklight

Structurally, Blacklight is a complex, enveloped virus. It has an icosahedral head surrounded by a membrane similar to that of an HIV virus. The icosahedral head is bound to a helical tail with a hexagonal base plate with protruding protein tail fibers. Genomically, Blacklight is a circular, segmented, ambisense DNA virus with mostly double-stranded regions but having regions of single-strandedness. The complexity of the Blacklight virus is amazing, and I for one am proud of my creation, my child. Blacklight's genetic structure can be divided into three parts. The first is the positive sense, single-stranded regions. These are immediately translated by the host cell, and chaotically duplicate junk DNA within the host cell. The chaotic duplication of junk DNA provides the genetic material needed by the second region of Blacklight's genetic structure. The second region of Blacklight's genome is negative sense and single-stranded. This requires translation by the host cell into positive sense structure, and hence requires more time to manifest. By this stage, the uncontrollable duplication of junk DNA usually kills the host cell, releasing strands of junk DNA protected by a protein membrane. If this occurs, the junk DNA will interfere with neighboring cells' genetic transcription process, duplicating junk DNA within them and creating something akin to a chain reaction. Cellular death by this stage accelerates hyperbolically, killing the host organism in a matter of minutes. However, some host organisms have genetic material within their cells suitable for the second region of Blacklight's genome, allowing the genome to be translated quickly enough to prevent the death of the host cell. Once translated, the second region directs the host cell to release certain chemicals that encourage the growth of blood vessels around it, and also prepares and alters the host cell's chemical structure for the third region of Blacklight's genome. The third region of Blacklight's genome is ambisense and double-stranded. At this stage, the host cell's chemical structure allows it to act as a double-stranded replicative intermediate. This allows the translation of the third region of Blacklight's genome. Both strands of the third region's DNA are used, although one strand requires further translation while the other can be used immediately. The third region transforms the host cell into… I'm not sure what to call it, a viral 'super-cell', I suppose. The third region directs the host cell to create millions of different types of genetic and biological factories, which then produce genetic material to further evolve the host cell, create DNA tweezers, create antibodies and do a lot of other things I have not yet fully observed. Instead of killing the host cell to release more of itself, the Blacklight virus directs the host cell to create cylindrical nano-tendrils and protrude out of the host cell and into neighboring cells, infecting them and 'linking' them in the process. The neighbouring cells then quickly, in less than a few microseconds, quickly become viral cells by being dumped with already decoded DNA and DNA tweezers which accelerate the process. At this stage, complete takeover of the host organism is inevitable, and the host organism becomes something… interesting.


End file.
